Summer of Romance
by 2dreamy
Summary: Everyone's back at camp for another summer. Percy wants a nice break before heading off to college, but he soon finds that this summer will be anything but relaxing.
1. Chapter 1

Today was my first day back at camp. After all that had happened over the years, I felt like this was my first real summer break in a long time. Things were okay, well as okay as things could be anyway. I came down the hill of Camp Half-Blood after saying goodbye to my mom, dragging my duffel bag along with me. Most campers had already arrived, so it looked like any other summer day; satyrs playing volleyball, Apollo kids doing archery, Aphrodite kids by the lake checking themselves out in their reflections, Ares kids practicing sword fighting. I breathed in deeply, stopping for a moment, inhaling the scent of strawberries and fresh grass. I loved living with my mom and Paul, but camp had always felt like home to me.

I kept walking, saying hi to old friends and even people I didn't know who greeted me, and came to my cabin. Tyson wasn't there yet, the cabin looking just like it had last summer, and come to think of it, I didn't even know if he'd be coming to camp. I set my bag on my bunk, looking at all of the pictures I'd taped up of me and my friends. My eyes fixated on a particular picture; one of me and Annabeth, my arm around her, her kissing my cheek. Without thinking, I yanked it down and crumpled it up. I didn't want to be reminded of our relationship. I thought about how she was probably already at camp, and how I'd probably be seeing her a lot. I figured I'd deal with that when the time came. I threw the crumpled picture on the floor and walked out of my cabin, hands shoved into my shorts. I was going to head to the Big House to see Chiron and Mr. D, but as I started walking, I noticed someone sitting at the edge of the woods, back against a tree. Even though I couldn't see them well, I knew automatically who it was and I headed that way instead.

Nico looked up as I approached. "Long time no see, huh?"

He smiled slightly, which was unusual since he was always frowning or had an unreadable expression on his face. "Hi, Percy."

I sat down across from him. We'd been through a lot together, so much you'd think we'd be pretty good friends, but the thing was; Nico was impossibly brooding and self loathing, the most anti-social person I'd ever known. He didn't really have many friends at all. On top of that, last summer he'd confessed to having a crush on me, swearing up and down that he was over me. I hadn't known quite how to react at the time, so I'd just acted like a total idiotic. He'd avoided me for the rest of that summer. This summer, though, I was determined to make things better between us.

"When you'd get back to camp?" I asked him.

"Just yesterday. You just get here?" he messed with the hem of his t-shirt, averting his gaze away from me, like he was still embarrassed around me or something. I didn't know why, he had nothing to be embarrassed about.

"Yeah, I did."

"You about to meet up with Annabeth or something? I saw her in her cabin earlier."

I sighed quietly, looking out at the rest of the camp. Everyone seemed so happy, and normally I would've been too, but with the mention of Annabeth my mood turned sour. "No. If anything, I want to avoid her as much as possible this summer."

I heard Nico sit up. "Why? You guys having problems?"

I looked back over at Nico and laughed. "Does that make you happy?" I didn't know why I said that.

Nico blushed bright red and stammered, "No! Uh, of course not!"

I shrugged. "Annabeth and I broke up, Nico."

"But why? You guys were like the 'it' couple."

I picked at a hole in my shirt. "I think we were always just better as friends."

"I'm really sorry, Percy."

"It's okay, I mean, it was for the best anyway." I looked up at Nico again, his brown eyes intense and full of worry. "I just couldn't be with someone like her anymore...someone who I knew would always love someone else more than me."

"You mean Luke?" Nico asked. I nodded. Even though the guy was dead, I still didn't stand a chance. I'd always known Annabeth had had strong feelings for him, but I figured after he died they might've gone away. If anything her feelings for him just got stronger. She became sullen and depressed at first. Then things got better. Or she just got better at hiding her feelings. Things were okay between us again, but the longer our relationship had lasted, the more I knew those feelings she had for him would never truly go away. Maybe it hadn't been fair of me, but I was selfish and wanted someone who wanted me and only me.

"She really did love you too, Percy." Nico said.

"I know, I did too." my eyebrows furrowed. "But I don't know if I was ever _in_ love with her really, I think maybe we were just too good of friends, like the romance part was too forced or something."

"You'll find another girl." Nico promised, and I could tell it was hard for him to say that.

"Thanks, Nico. But I've been keeping my options open." I said that last part a little quietly. After Nico had told me about his little crush, it'd made me think a lot. Sure, I knew I liked girls. And I obviously knew what being gay was, but I'd really just never thought about it much. Finding out that Nico was gay was sort of...eye opening for me. Him being the first gay person I knew, it made it all seem more real. When I'd broken up with Annabeth, I'd had flings with both girls and guys.

"What do you mean?" Nico asked in confusion.

"Sure, a girlfriend would be nice." I said, looking at him straight in the eye. "But I'd be open to a boyfriend too."

Nico's eyes widened, and before he could say anything, Connor Stoll walked up to us. "Hey, Percy!"

I smiled. "Connor! Good to see you man. Hey, is your brother back from college yet?"

Connor smirked. "I bet you can't _wait_ to see him, huh?"

I couldn't help but blush like mad. "Shut up, Stoll! I can't believe Travis told you!"

Connor laughed. "He's coming tomorrow. You gonna get him a welcome home present?"

"Like I have money!"

"Oh, please. I bet you can think of a present that doesn't involve money."

I smacked his leg. " _Bye,_ Connor." and with that, he jogged away.

Nico seemed to be at a loss for words, he stared at me in disbelief for a couple of seconds. "What was _that_ about?" he managed.

"Travis came to camp for winter break...so did I."

Nico still looked confused.

"We just...you know." I could feel how hot my face was getting. "Hooked up."

Nico just sat there, staring at me still.

"What?" I asked. "You thought you were the only one around here that was into boys?"

I got up and left to go to the Big House without another word, leaving Nico with his mouth hanging open.

* * *

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	2. Chapter 2

After hanging out with Chiron and Mr. D for awhile, I decided to head towards the lake, hoping to sit by the water and clear my head. Along the way, I saw Annabeth coming out of the Athena cabin. Her curly blonde hair was in a loose ponytail, and wisps of hair surrounded her face, but she didn't seem to care that her hair was falling out of the ponytail. She didn't see me at first, and I was kind of hoping that I'd just be able to walk straight past, but her eyes suddenly darted over to me, as if she could sense that I was near. Her lips turned up slightly in a hesitant smile and she stopped walking, like she was debating whether she should come over towards me or bolt. Finally, I raised my hand in a wave. She waved back. Then she turned her stormy eyes away from me and kept walking.

I sat down at the lake, my feet in the water, trying to decide what it was I was feeling. Was I happy to see her? Angry? Sad? But none of those seemed right. Whatever it was I felt, I was still glad in my decision to end our relationship. Maybe eventually we could be friends again. Someday.

I sat there for what felt like a long time, until I heard a voice behind me say, "Jackson! Man, is it good to see you again!"

I turned around and saw Jason Grace walking over towards me. He was tall and blonde, muscles prominent through his thin t-shirt. Although he was a Roman demigod, he'd decided to stay here at the Greek camp, so he could be close to his girlfriend, Piper, a daughter of Aphrodite.

"How've you been, Grace?" Jason bent down slightly to give me a quick hug before sitting down next to me.

"Finally...happy, y'know? Like finally I have a chance to breathe and relax."

"Yeah, I get that." I said. "I feel the same way." After spending years fighting for my life, it felt amazing just to sit back and feel like a normal kid again. Not that I was normal. At all. Or a kid. I was already eighteen years old, and I'd be going to college in the fall. In fact, I hadn't felt like a kid in a long time.

"So..." Jason said. "I heard about you and Annabeth." I looked out towards the water, knowing he would've brought it up eventually.

"Yeah, it was about a month before winter break."

"How you holding up?"

I shrugged. "I mean, I was the one that broke up with her. It sucked. But it was for the best. I knew I...needed to be with someone who I didn't have to compete for. Luke was dead and I still always felt like I was second best. Like...if he were still alive, and everything with Kronos had never happened...maybe they'd have ended up together instead of me and her."

It took awhile for Jason to respond. "I get where you're coming from Percy, really I do. But don't you think you're being a little unfair? You can't help what's past. She chose _you_. And besides, he was like, seven years older than her. If anything, her feelings for him were never more than one sided."

I didn't know what to say.

"Are sure Luke was the only reason you guys broke up?" He asked. "I mean...you guys seemed so great together, from what I could tell anyway. It never seemed like Luke was still a problem for you guys."

I looked down at my lap. I knew not everyone was going to believe my whole reasoning with Luke. Jason was right, after all.

"You knew Nico had a thing for me, didn't you?"

Jason seemed surprised at the mention of him. "Well yeah, but...it's not like it was ever my place to tell you."

"No...no, I know." I was quiet for a moment. "It's just that when he told me, it was like things just started to click, y'know?"

I looked up and Jason's eyes widened.

"Percy...are you...?"

"Bi..." I felt a little embarrassed, saying it out loud. Good thing we were pretty much alone, because I wasn't sure if I could handle _everyone_ at camp knowing, not yet anyway. Even Annabeth didn't know.

"It's totally cool with me, Percy."

I smiled, grateful that I had a friend as cool as Jason. "Thanks. I guess I...sort of used the Luke thing as an excuse. It was still a big part of why I decided to break things off. Just not the only reason. I wanted to...experiment I guess. See if what I was feeling was real or not. And it was. It _is._ "

"You and Annabeth will be okay. You guys were friends before, right?"

"Yeah." I smiled. "She was my best friend. I think maybe...I think maybe we always should've just been friends. We were better that way."

Jason laid a reassuring hand on my shoulder, then let it go.

"Before we pushed all the romance stuff, things weren't nearly as complicated. And relationships shouldn't be complicated...sometimes they can be hard, but it shouldn't cause unnecessary problems and make things all weird. And when we started dating, I lost my best friend. It was like we weren't even friends anymore...just boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Your girlfriend, _or_ boyfriend, should also be your best friend." Jason said.

"Yeah." I nodded. "Anyway, I'm a son of Poseidon and she's a daughter of Athena. Maybe it was impossible for us to work from the start."

Jason's eyebrows furrowed, and he gave me a quizzical look. "You don't... _like_ Nico, do you?"

I blushed. "Why...why would that matter?"

I mean...I was sure I didn't. I probably didn't. It was _Nico._ He was several years younger than me. He was like...a little brother to me.

Jason sighed. "Nico's gay but..." he paused. "He was _really_ into you. But he gave up on you. You know, you were just like...this unattainable _god_ to him."

Somehow I blushed even harder.

"But Nico's dating Will, okay?"

I frowned. "Will? That Apollo kid?" I didn't know why, but I suddenly felt jealous.

Jason nodded.

"I'm not...I don't... _like_ Nico."

"You sure about that?" Then he got up and left me sitting alone, scowling into the water.

* * *

I stayed there until I heard the conch shell that signaled it was time for dinner. After getting my food and burning a small portion in the fire for my father, I sat down to eat alone.

"Blue cherry coke." I said outloud, and my empty goblet instantly filled with my favorite soda.

I was halfway through with my meal when I felt like someone was watching me. It was Nico. He sat alone too, at the Hades table, and he was wearing an unreadable expression on his face like always. He mouthed the words ' _meet me after dinner'_ to me slowly and carefully. I nodded, wondering what in the gods he wanted to talk to me about.


End file.
